


Bridging The Gap

by amestriz



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, Literally thats all this is it's fluff, M/M, pining lance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-28
Updated: 2018-04-28
Packaged: 2019-04-29 04:02:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14464572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amestriz/pseuds/amestriz
Summary: He ponders, for a brief moment, how long it takes for someone to fall in love. How many nights in front of a computer screen, swapping stories and sharing secrets and laughing and crying and everything in between, does it take to be able to give your heart to someone, fully and without expectation? But then Keith laughs, and he knocks his forehead against Lance’s, relieved, and his smile is big and bright and Lance almost chokes on it, and he knows then that his heart has belonged to Keith for a very, very long time.





	Bridging The Gap

**Author's Note:**

> a brief study based off of this [artwork](http://sbrsk.tumblr.com/post/170068051047%22) by [sbrsk](http://sbrsk.tumblr.com/) on tumblr!

Lance doesn’t know why he’s so nervous. 

It’s been a while, sure, but it’s not like he hasn’t talked to Keith since he formally joined the blade of marmora. They’d spent many nights video chatting, updating each other on missions, checking each other’s well-being, and generally catching up on time lost to their respective duties. It was something they both cherished, and it was something that gave them both a little peace when everything around them was quite literally on fire.

So Lance doesn’t know  _ why _ he’s so nervous.

It’s just Keith, he tries to tell himself. Next to Hunk, it’s Keith he’s the most comfortable around. It’s a comfort born of those many late-night calls, granted, born from sharing his deepest and darkest fears and insecurities with the boy on the other side of the screen, but it’s a comfort nonetheless, one he’s reveled in time and time again. So all things considered, he shouldn’t feel like his heart is about to beat right out of his chest, shouldn’t feel all fluttery and tingly and light. He should be excited, yes, but he shouldn’t feel like  _ this _ .

He wonders, briefly, stewing in his own nerves, if Keith is going through the same thing. Somewhere on the castleship, is Keith feeling the same breathlessness? The same gut-wrenching anxiety churning in his belly? He wonders, do Keith’s hands shake? Are his palms sweaty, too? Can he feel it, all the way on the other side of the ship, that strange urge to be closer, to be near? Something is pulling at his chest, urgent and wanting, but Lance tries to ignore it. Whatever he’s feeling, it’s a little too real for his tastes, and he’s not sure he wants to unpack that quite yet, whatever it means.

He sighs, pulling at his hair for a moment before he decides that the silence of his room is too much, too stifling. Standing up from his bed, he stretches for a moment, shaking out the jitters that threaten to overtake him, trying to quell the nerves that froth and turn in his belly. He thinks about going to Hunk’s room, or maybe to see Red, anything to bide his time until fate decides that he’s ready to see Keith, and briefly, he feels a little less strange when his door slides open.

And then it all comes crashing back, and Lance feels kind of like he’s drowning. Keith looks a little startled, the door to his room sliding shut behind him. He’s still pulling on his dumb jacket, the one that makes Lance feel kind of tingly, and all Lance can do is stare, slack-jawed and wide-eyed, watching as Keith slowly lowers his hands. There’s so much to say, he realizes, so much that lingers in the space between them, but Lance’s throat is suddenly dry, his tongue heavy in his mouth.

He can’t think past the expression on Keith’s face, the unadulterated longing, mouth agape, eyes softer than Lance had ever seen. Something pulls at his chest, when Keith reaches out — a handshake, he thinks, a quiet “hey man,” spoken in the silence of the corridor — and suddenly Lance is desperate to bridge the small distance between them, to be as close to Keith as he possibly can. He doesn’t hesitate when he closes his fingers around Keith’s. He doesn’t know what drives him, but he doesn’t hesitate to tug Keith closer, until they’re sharing the same space and staring into each other’s eyes, chest-to-chest, breath-to-breath.

He desperately wants to say something, wants to alleviate that strange pressure in his chest, the strange tension that hangs over their heads, but Keith is so close now and Lance can feel him, all of him, his breath and his heat and his heart. His tongue is heavy and his throat is dry and his heart feels like it’s going to jump out of his mouth but all he can see is Keith, all he can feel is Keith. And it magnifies, tenfold, when Keith swallows and searches Lance’s face for something, anything that might give away what’s happening.

“Lance,” he says, almost breathless.

It is enough, for Lance, whatever it is, and suddenly one arm is around Keith’s neck and the other is hooked under his shoulder, and he’s pulling himself closer and holding on as tight as he can, nearly shaking in his sneakers. It takes Keith a moment to recover, but it’s short and he hardly hesitates to wrap his arms around Lance’s shoulders, bringing him even closer despite the lack of space between them.

Lance is trembling but he doesn’t care, not with Keith pressed so close, not with the feeling that washes over him, relief and so much more he can’t even explain. One of Keith’s hands slides from his back into his hair, and in that one movement the embrace is suddenly a lot more intimate than it was before, a lot more familiar. Lance almost gasps, and Keith’s hand digs into the fabric of his jacket.

Lance’s realizes that there really was a lot to unpack, being where he is, tucked right up against Keith. He also realizes that he missed him more than he let on, leagues more, and it’s almost funny to him how deeply he had felt Keith’s absence. Sure, there was those calls, but they don’t even come close to this, to seeing Keith, to feeling him, breathing him in and knowing he’s safe and warm and real. Lance’s hold gets tighter again, and then he’s pulling his face out of Keith’s shoulder and staring at him with misty eyes and a watery smile.

“I missed you, samurai,” he says.

The nickname is old and familiar, and it comforts him, if only just. Everything is new now, the way Keith looks at him, the way Keith holds him, and he needs that familiarity to ground him, to bring him back from wherever Keith’s embrace had sent him.

He ponders, for a brief moment, how long it takes for someone to fall in love. How many nights in front of a computer screen, swapping stories and sharing secrets and laughing and crying and everything in between, does it take to be able to give your heart to someone, fully and without expectation? But then Keith laughs, and he knocks his forehead against Lance’s, relieved, and his smile is big and bright and Lance almost chokes on it, and he knows then that his heart has belonged to Keith for a very, very long time.

He thinks back to the garrison, when he had constructed that stupid rivalry out of nothing because Keith was too big and too bright and Lance couldn’t handle it, not yet. He thinks back to seeing Keith after his expulsion, beating the shit out of the scientists that had Shiro. He remembers his mouth going dry and his heart threatening to beat right out of his chest and he remembers feeling angry because how  _ dare _ this boy show up in his life again when Lance finally thought he was over whatever drew them together in the first place.

He thinks back to the first time they really laughed together, shoulders pressed together in the middle of a food fight. He remembers feeling a little light-headed, seeing Keith’s smile. He remembers the fated bonding moment, even if he still hasn’t owned up to it. He remembers his body aching and the heat of the burns on his skin, but he also remembers how soft Keith had looked, and how right his hand felt in his own. He remembers being scared, too, because that’s when it first might have dawned on him, the extent of his feelings.

He thinks back to when he carried Keith through the worst of Shiro’s absence. He remembers the newfound trust they had established, the moments stolen where Keith could confide in Lance and Lance in turn would listen. He remembers feeling happy that Keith could turn to him, that he could trust him like that. He also remembers how shocked he had been when Keith had immediately turned down his offer to step away from the team after finding Shiro again. Looking back, perhaps it had a little more to do with whatever is happening now than Lance had originally assumed.

He realizes he remembers all of it, everything with Keith down to the last detail, from the moment he had first saw him to the moment he had watched him leave, heart aching in his chest because it felt like half of it was walking away from him. He remembers the first video call, sitting in Red and being nervous as all hell, for some reason. And then he remembers watching as Keith’s face had popped into the screen, and his smile was warm if a little tired when he realized it was Lance calling.

So perhaps Lance had given his heart away a long time ago, but he finds that he doesn’t mind. Keith is so warm now and his arms around Lance feel indescribable, and Lance knows that this is where he will always want to be, for as long as the universe will give him. The corridor is quiet and Lance loses count of how long they hold on to each other, but he doesn’t mind. There is so much he wants to say to Keith, so much he knows they will have to talk about, but he likes where he is, in this moment.

Keith is pitching forward and their lips meet in the briefest of kisses, shy and chaste and new and warm, and Lance decides that the time for thinking and talking is later. Keith is kissing him again, still tentative, still a bit experimental, but it is the best damn thing Lance had ever felt. He will stay here with Keith, pressed against his bedroom door, holding each other, swapping kisses and smiles and quiet laughter, and he will think about what it means later.

For now, he will enjoy the time he has been given, and he will enjoy making up for the time that has been lost.

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr: amestriz


End file.
